I recently purchased this game after reading a top 10 list of survival horror games for the PC.

First impressions were not good. It took almost 3 hours of patch tracing and installing before it would run under Vista, even after which, I was left with an annoying sound glitch. Though I eventual give up and loaded to an XP machine which still required patching. Okay that out of the way, and several days game play in hand.

This game was released in 2006 yet feels somewhat older. Gaming is nothing out of the ordinary which is okay. However overall, the graphics, although acceptable, are not as good as many online reviews led me to believe. Especially when you consider that this came almost two years after Half Life 2, Far Cry, The Chronicles of Riddick, Unreal Tournament 2004, Doom 3 etc.

Character animation is average and AI is reasonable, although the creatures never really instill any fear or trepidation. For the most part they are quite easy to avoid and lack that… more »

I recently purchased this game after reading a top 10 list of survival horror games for the PC.

First impressions were not good. It took almost 3 hours of patch tracing and installing before it would run under Vista, even after which, I was left with an annoying sound glitch. Though I eventual give up and loaded to an XP machine which still required patching. Okay that out of the way, and several days game play in hand.

This game was released in 2006 yet feels somewhat older. Gaming is nothing out of the ordinary which is okay. However overall, the graphics, although acceptable, are not as good as many online reviews led me to believe. Especially when you consider that this came almost two years after Half Life 2, Far Cry, The Chronicles of Riddick, Unreal Tournament 2004, Doom 3 etc.

Character animation is average and AI is reasonable, although the creatures never really instill any fear or trepidation. For the most part they are quite easy to avoid and lack that certain fear factor.

The overall environments feel as if they belong in something from around 2002-3. The landscapes vary; some appear quite extensive while others are very linear and restrictive. Yet, overall you don't really feel this unless you like to explore. Rather than running into the old school invisible wall, you often hit high radiation areas which eventually will kill you. These I feel are a nice touch and do distract from some of the more linear aspects of the game, but isn't quite enough.

Yes there are other nice effects but it just doesn't have that quality feel; rather, I cannot shake this sense that it was produced on a very tight budget. And forget technical support. If you can look past its failings and get it to run, then I'd say its an enjoyable, but forgettable romp. Story line and character interaction is mostly okay

Overall an okay budget title, however, I would have been very upset back in 06 if I had paid the full retail price for this game.

I am very much into my games of every type (except sport sim perhaps) and STALKER is utterly superb!

First thing I will say is that it 'feels' a little rough around the edges, but you will realise that it's actually beautifully balanced. Some of the weapon models look a little funny. There is no satisfying squelchy sound when you make a knife kill... a few tiny things like that are present.

But around this, you have a massive, excellent game. Time passes realistically. The game is very open-ended, you're very free to roam. Graphics are decent. The way the environments' have been modelled is very believable in look and in scale. You are restricted from certain areas by either fences or impenetrable radiation presence. (keep walking along and you'll soon die of radiation exposure) No invisible walls here!

'Anomolies' exist which are mostly nuclear-related, gravity-based 'traps' to steer clear of.

This game is dripping with atmosphere and the combat is brilliant.… more »

I am very much into my games of every type (except sport sim perhaps) and STALKER is utterly superb!

First thing I will say is that it 'feels' a little rough around the edges, but you will realise that it's actually beautifully balanced. Some of the weapon models look a little funny. There is no satisfying squelchy sound when you make a knife kill... a few tiny things like that are present.

But around this, you have a massive, excellent game. Time passes realistically. The game is very open-ended, you're very free to roam. Graphics are decent. The way the environments' have been modelled is very believable in look and in scale. You are restricted from certain areas by either fences or impenetrable radiation presence. (keep walking along and you'll soon die of radiation exposure) No invisible walls here!

'Anomolies' exist which are mostly nuclear-related, gravity-based 'traps' to steer clear of.

This game is dripping with atmosphere and the combat is brilliant. Guns are not accurate like they are in almost every other game I've played and they fire very realistically. Firearm combat can be tough, especially against multiple opponents, but if you like your combat 'real feel and convincing, it's brilliant. It's not a case of line your crosshairs over someone's head, pull the trigger and watch them flop; over range, the chances of your bullets going where your crosshairs are, slim; you'll be going for middle of the body a lot and may get headshots by accident because that's just how the accuracy is...

You will have to eat at certain times of the day.

When you get shot, you will have a colour coded 'bleeding' icon appear. What happens if you lose blood (and health) based on the severity of your wound (red icon = heavy, fast loss, green = low loss, yellow/amber = moderate loss). You will continue to lose health until you use bandages or medkit etc.

Everything has a weight. From an individual bullet to grenades, medkits and food. You can carry up to 60Kg (after that you can't move or jump.)

You have a meter for fatigue, which depletes slowly, but if you carry 50-60Kg it will deplete very quickly and jumping takes a big chunk. The stamina meter replenishes when standing still.

You also have a 'noise' meter, splinter cell style, helping you to be stealthy and quiet when you need to and there's a third party 'awareness' meter so f you've been spotted, you'll know about it. You can use these to great advantage in close combat situations.

Weapons are wide ranging and very authentic with many different bullet/round options for the same gun. Sometimes you will need the armour piercing rounds and sometimes the high damage ones. Sometimes the shotgun shells that have extra range or the powerful spread type etc. etc. All in all, the way weapons are dealt with in this game is superb.

AI is excellent and enemies can be very sly. They don't rush in and mostly work well in teams. You'll have your work cut out. Stalker often feels hard... but never unfairly so. You never feel like the computer's cheating, or making it unfair through health handicaps. You know you just made a bad call or got outnumbered or jumped when you didn't expect it.

Missions are fairly varied and the gameworld is large with various factions who have different ideals, agendas and inter-faction relationships.

There's SO much to this game, so many brilliant details and so much thought as gone into it. I am really so impressed and very embarrassed that I left it sitting on my shelf for months before I decided to install and play!